SELLER: Aviv "Vivi" NevoLOCATION: Los Angeles (Brentwood), CA
PRICE: $6,095,000
SIZE: 5,600 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back in July of 2008, the New York Times profiled an extraordinarily well-connected but mysterious–or perhaps just fiercely private–media mogul with the alliteratively pleasing name of Aviv "Vivi" Nevo. Most people who don't run in glammy, jet-setting big bizness circles probably have never heard of Mister Nevo and he seems to like it that way. How and that the somewhat reclusive Mister Nevo manages to fly largely under the radar and microscope of paps and pesky gossips is especially surprising and particularly impressive given that he's currently engaged to Chinese superstar actress Zhang Ziyi–she of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon–previously dated cat walkers like Kate Moss and pals around with high profile peeps like Rupert Murdoch, Lenny Kravitz, Ronald O. Perlman, and Madonna. He was, in fact, one of the few folks invited to the wedding of Madge and her now ex-man-mate Guy Ritchie.
Most of Mister Nevo's famous friends don't seem to know or care much about his bizness and/or how he makes his many millions that might add up to more than a billion. According to the New York Times and the few other article that circulate with 411 on him, the inscrutable venture capitalist who swans around the world in slim fitting Christian Dior suits parlayed a multi-million dollar inheritance into a major, major, major stake in Time Warner–he is believed to be the largest private shareholder in Time Warner–as well as significant stakes in other mammoth media companies like News Corp., Viacom, and eBay. He has also spread his investment money around to a number of much smaller media companies and other concerns including investing in New York nightlife doyenne Amy Sacco's erstwhile Chelsea eatery Bette, a star-studded restaurant that, once upon a time in another life, Your Mama knew quite well.
Property records show Mister Nevo purchased his Los Angeles property, located in the hills of Brentwood less than 1,000 feet as the crow flies from The Getty Center, in February of 2000 for $3,900,000 and recently listed the residence with an asking price of $6,095,000. The tax man's records show the single story contemporary measures 4,771 square feet while listing information states it's in the neighborhood of 5,600 square feet and includes 5 bedrooms and 4.5 poopers.
The property is well located for privacy seekers at the tail end of a short cul-de-sac with walls, gates and hedges that run across the street frontage. The electronically controlled driveway gate opens to a small motor court with a front facing 2-car garage and the front door opens to a glassy entrance hall that traffics visitors into the various areas of the multi-winged house. The formal living room has reddish born wood floors, a high but not dramatic high ceiling, a wall of wood-framed glass sliders that open to the back yard and a fireplace with a simple–if somewhat early 1990s–black granite mantel placed on wall high-gloss and smooth faced wood paneling. Although Your Mama appreciate the clean lines of the upholstered furniture and we think the painting above the sofa that looks like a Gustav Klimt was a good choice for bringing some much needed color and movement into an otherwise stagnant space, we are mostly unimpressed with the uninspired and, frankly, non-existent day-core. Plus, we're pretty sure the painting is not a Klimt, which really isn't a decorative or art crime considering that it still probably cost more than Your Mama earns in a year.
The smooth face of the wood paneling behind the fireplace continues into a small sitting room located just off and a few steps down from the living room. The wee but cozy room has a built in bar–and two ass-uglee–wrapped with the above mentioned smooth-faced paneling granite (or maybe marble) counter tops and glass shelves that hold a myriad of glassware. Opposite the bar a couple of cozy chairs sit in front of a large window and atop a color blocked red and cream colored rug that we'd bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly is woven of the finest silk and feels magnificent under bare feet. A flat screen tee-vee mouth into more of that gorgeous paneling that, iffin we lived there, would be full of fingerprints because we don't think we could keep from touching it every time we walked through the room. We could, of course, do without the blood red velvet drapes, but given the amount of sun that streams through the window we can certainly understand their black-out functionality.
The dining room, with it's gigantic sliding glass door that opens into a jumbled and jungle-ish part of the garden, has one entire wall that looks to Your Mama like black granite. This sort of usage of the material maybe looks great in the lobby of an office tower but not so much in the dining room of a private home. The adjacent eat-in kitchen has been fitted with custom, flat-fronted wood cabinetry that looks like it might or might not be walnut. There are black granite counter tops, which match all the other damn black granite everywhere in the house and actually work in this kitchen set-up. A breakfast area is right off the kitchen as is a small family room area with two walls of glass that open to the dining terrace in the back yard
The sleek but warm modern–and poorly decorated–residence counts 4 bedrooms including a master suite that has a private terrace with canyon and city lights views and huge sitting room with a wonderfully tactile seal-gray colored velvet sofa with lines just hard enough to look appropriately linear and yet just soft enough to look comfortable to settle in and watch a long night of those upsetting and financially flailing bee-hwatchas on The Real Housewives of Orange County. Although the room lacks and needs a colorful painting above the sofa–say a Rothko color field painting or a photo by Andreas Gursky–there is some sort of small, sensually shaped sculpture on a pedestal that marks the entrance from the sitting area to the boo-dwar.
The bedroom proper contains a huge bed that sits on an exquisite gold silk carpet and is flanked by a couple of antique Chinese chests. Another cheap and tawdry looking table sits in the corner opposite the bed on top of which sits an hulking old-school cathode ray tube television. Certainly with as much money as Mister Nevo has, there's unquestionably a better solution for late night and naughty tee-vee viewing. The master bathroom, while spacious with a pair of chunky black vanities, creamy Travertine tile floors (or maybe limestone), a separate tub and shower, and plenty of windows for natural light and ventilation, there's entirely too much mirrored wall in there for Your Mama's personal taste. The walls behind the vanities, which the children will note sit on opposite walls from each other, are covered entirely with mirrors. Floor to ceiling mirrors that make for a dizzying reflective situation where one mirror reflects the other ad infinitum. Not only would that make our boozy morning eyes spin in their sockets, we do not, thank you very much, care to glimpse every unflattering angle of our prodigious and growing body as we exit the shower or brush our damn chompers.
Anyoo, the lushly landscaped backyard includes several water features and terraces and a rolling lawn the shimmies down to where a long lap pool has been sunk directly into the grass with only a slim coping surrounding it. We have to say, we adore this very East Coast look, but also know from practical experience that the lawn boys are made crazy and curse you behind your back when they have to collect all the blades of grass that get blown and tossed into the pool when the lawn is being mowed.
Previous reports reveal that in addition to his Brentwood home, Mister Nevo maintains a residence in London, a Hudson Street condo in New York City, a couple of cribs in Tel Aviv including his childhood home, and according to the New York Times, he and his wildly famous ladee-mate recently bought a place in Beijing, although we suspect Miss Zhang already had a posh pad in her native China.
photos: Westside Estate Agency
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